


24/7 Target

by definitionangel



Series: Of Starlight and Clouds [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Crack, M/M, Target AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-28
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-19 23:16:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19365703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/definitionangel/pseuds/definitionangel
Summary: Yes, Doyoung hates his job at Target. Not even the cute vampire boy that smashes his way through the ceiling lamp can do anything about it.





	24/7 Target

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I am. Lia. 
> 
> This is the first fanfiction I have ever posted and is a trial run for any future fanfictions I (might) post. This might be the first and last one that I ever post, who knows. You're welcome to yell at me about how bad it was in the comments or you may go to twitter and yell at me there, my handle is the same as my user here. If you are early, you may only see one tweet about me smashing Johnny's kneecaps. I follow 5 people so far, all of them are the NCT official accounts. If you do happen to follow me, please know I am very bad at social media. Please Tread Lightly.

Doyoung kind of hates Target. More specifically, he hates the Target that he works at. He feels his blood boil and thinks of strangling people when he thinks of the Target he works at.

Firstly, the theme color of Target in general is a hideous red, so he has to deal with seeing it every hour of his shift, everywhere he looks, including when he looks down to check his shirt. It makes him angrier, the red. He should have applied to work at Walmart or something instead, because at the very least Walmart’s colors include blue.

Secondly, There’s nothing but chaos here, can have nothing but chaos with no good children screaming and crying and adults trying to bargain for a price that cannot be changed. There are tired college students walking in with nothing but an oversized hoodie and pajama pants with greasy hair who sometimes don’t have enough money to pay for their goods and just sit there moaning about how terrible life is. There are ungrateful business people who don’t have second thoughts about yelling at people. Nobody ever stops to think about that sad cashier who’s tired of being at the godforsaken cash register and staying awake every graveyard shift. 

That’s every Target. What makes this one more irritating is that it has magic.

See, this Target has a section for magic hidden inside the third, far too bright fluorescent light fixture to the right of the exit door. In Doyoung’s opinion, it’s far more trouble than it’s worth. When there are too many magical folk up in their magical section for magical creatures (even the name is stupid), the light flickers, and he has to go stop any more magical folk from trying to worm their ways up there. Selling goods to magical folk is good for business but it means that this Target is open 24/7 because the magical folk like to be all spooky and come out at night.

Doyoung hates graveyard shifts the most, hates it when he has to stand to do his college homework because magical folk like to pretend to be all mysterious and stuff. The mystery to Doyoung is how the magical folk manage to survive because none of the magical beings he’s met so far have had any ounce of common sense. 

He’s also starting to think there’s a conspiracy going on in the Target manager office because he almost all his shifts are graveyard ones. There’s also his graveyard shift partner, Taeil, who stands at the cash register across from him doing his own college homework and talking up nonsense half the time. What the heck is banshee cannibalism?

Taeil should know by now that Doyoung is very much human and there isn’t an ounce of magical blood in his veins. He keeps looking at Doyoung critically every time they’re assigned the graveyard shift and it gets unnerving after awhile. He’s just trying to pass his computer science classes. 

“Are you sure you aren’t at least part siren like me? Or at least part fae like Hyuck.” Taeil asks for the tenth millionth time when Doyoung starts to hum.

“I have no idea who you are talking about.” Doyoung always replies with the driest voice, because truly, it’s better to just pretend the fae named Donghyuck doesn’t exist. On a good shift night, Donghyuck will disappear into the light fixture and reappear with whatever stuff he needs, go to the cash register and pay for whatever he needs, leave, and Doyoung will cry when he finds half the paragraph he typed up during his graveyard shift missing, or a shelf entirely cleared of the clothes display put there previously.

Tonight is not a good shift night in many ways.

Firstly, Donghyuck announces his presence to the entire store over the intercom. Thankfully, at one thirty in the morning on the dot, Donghyuck, Taeil and he are the only ones in the nonmagical part of the store. The “Yo my fav Target bros how are ya doin’ this wonderful evenin’?” is still ringing in the highest pitched voice possible minutes after it blasted across the entire store in a decibel that feels close to  an airplane taking off in the Target. (It’s only annoying because he has to hear it over and over again, as he’s very fond of the half fae, but Doyoung would never admit that to Donghyuck’s face.)

Second, some magical folk named Johnny walked up to Taeil, whispered something into his ear, and now Taeil has been up there in the light fixture with their customers for the last fifteen minutes. On the plus side it does give him time to work on his computer science project without eyes drilling into the side of his head like they’ll find something other than “I wish I could go home” and “This program is broken can I give up already” running across his mind. If Taeil could read his mind Doyoung really doesn’t have any secrets to hide.

Third, his feet hurt. His feet really hurt from standing up. This cheap ass retail store doesn’t even provide a chair for him to sit on, the audacity of it all.

It’s quiet for a good four minutes after Taeil leaves, and he has time to reprogram a few lines of the stupid model of the galaxy. If he closes his eyes now he can see the billions of if statements tattooed onto the back of his eyelids so even when he sleeps, he won’t be able to get rid of the nightmare that is the computer science project.

The clock hits 1:55 am on his laptop. He blinks, and there is a hole where the light fixture above his register used to be, something resembling a human crushing his laptop, broken wood surrounding him, but nothing hit him.

“Okay.” Doyoung says, staring at the laptop broken into smithereens. He really should have saved that code onto another hard drive. He places his hand onto his forehead, and really thinks about feigning a faint like all those victorian ladies who did it to get out of awkward social situations. He really does need to pass this class to get his astrophysics degree and the job that he’d been offered when the company realized they could pay a freshly graduated student less than someone with a pHD. He guesses his extreme overworking and internships in freshman and sophomore years of college paid off. It doesn’t look like he’ll pass the class anymore, so he just sighs, “I guess I’m working at this Target for the rest of my life.”

(And Doyoung knows that Yuta can easily magic his work back, with all the unsaved changes. He’s done it before, when Chenle was not being careful when playing with fire that one time. Chenle had burnt the laptop to ashes. But let Doyoung be dramatic.)

From someone above him, he can hear someone shriek ‘yes’ very loudly. It sounds to him a lot like Donghyuck. What he would give to tape that kid’s mouth shut. Or strangle him. (That statement is wrong, and completely untrue most of the time. He likes to pretend, though.) He’ll have to ask Taeil if half fae can die from strangulation. He doubts it. Donghyuck is too persistent, too absolutely stubborn, to die from a lack of oxygen.

He doesn’t even realize that none of the shards of glass or wood hit him at all until he looks down and sees the shards are forming a circle around him.

Then, he takes a long look at the human looking creature that has smashed his laptop to smithereens. His brain is stupid enough to short circuit and his heart is just as stupid because it starts to race like nascar drivers in his chest. The human like person is _pretty._ And kind of intimidating. But mostly pretty. There’s a slit near his eyebrow that’s probably supposed to make him look cooler. (It does, but Doyoung won’t admit that to the air of the store.) He has ridiculously well defined cheekbones, and a jawline that could cut through human flesh. Not that this possible human looks like Doyoung’s ideal type, absolutely not.

(He doesn’t want to assume that this person is human. He thought Yuta, his strange Japanese roommate, was human at first. That was a mistake. Yuta got very offended and gave him a lecture on humanoid magical folk and how even dragons could look human. It was strange as much as it was informational. It turns out that Yuta is a dragon.)

The not human until proven otherwise has not opened his eyes yet. Maybe Doyoung should call 911 because he is fairly certain that this maybe not human is at least injured. He also knows magical folk do not heal like human do, and that it is a bad Idea to call 911 for their cases, so he does nothing. This information also comes from Yuta. He hears movement, sizzling from above him. Sizzling is never good, especially if it’s Chenle. A head pokes out from the hole above him, and it gives him a heart attack because he doesn’t care if Chenle is part phoenix and can fly.

“Chenle please don’t do that.” He says through his teeth, praying that the child does not fall. Legitimately, he’s about to get on his knees and pray to the god hoping Chenle will not fall. The maybe not human isn’t at the top of his priorities right now. The maybe not human broke his laptop and is causing him to lose the job that will get him out of this godforsaken Target, even if he is pretty. (And Doyoung is going to be petty because Yuta isn’t here right now to right the computer.)

Doyoung’s bunny eyes widen as he watches the ceiling seal itself back together with fire. He doesn’t know, he’s not magical. Even a new light fixture is in place of the broken one. Kind of like cauterizing a bleeding wound, maybe, except the wound is actually a wooden hole in the ceiling and that should have burnt the whole place down. Doyoung also doesn’t know because he’s not a doctor or materials engineer of any sort. There’s still a mess on the floor though, and the maybe nonhuman hasn’t opened their eyes yet. Well, Doyoung’s pretty sure that the maybe nonhuman is awake by his breathing patterns.

Doyoung doesn’t blame the dude for not wanting to open his eyes though, the fluorescent lights are indeed, always far too bright. He moves to get a broom so he can clean up the shards of glass when the dude speaks.

“Dooooooooon’t” He groans. There was no need for him to pull that word out was there? He sounds incredibly… Incredibly like Doyoung’s dream man but Doyoung’s not just going to admit that. “I can just vanish this mess.”

“As much as I enjoy not cleaning up, the smithereens of my laptop are underneath you and I really, really need those to see if I can recover any of my data I need to graduate.”

It doesn’t make the guy react like any non magical person would. Instead, the guy just flops back against the conveyor belt and groans again. That must be uncomfortable, but Doyoung’s a petty person so he won’t help the dude move to a different place. Maybe the dude is also a petty person because he swings his arms around carelessly, and hits Doyoung straight in the stomach and it feels like a fifteen tonne truck has come crashing into him. The dude may look like a stick but he certainly hit hard.

Judging by this one hit, this dude has some sort of vendetta against him or something because praise the holy lord almighty that hurt. It’s hard breathing, and he stumbles back a bit. It’s good to know this stupidly perfect dude is alright though, no limb paralysis in the arms or anything. It’d take away from his functionality and make him no longer stupidly perfect. Maybe Doyoung should have hoped that this guy would at least break an arm.

“Oh, my, god. I am so sorry. Are you alright?” The dude sits up without any difficulty, and Doyoung really wishes a non magical body could take such a hard impact the same way. Doyoung clutches at his stomach and raises his head, eyes comically wide and still unable to speak.

The second part of that is wrong. He wheezes out, “You. You need to learn to watch your strength and get. Out. of. My. Target.”

It’s not his Target but for now, he is benefitting from it.

“Huh. You really aren’t lying when you say you’re completely human, that’s a shame.” The handsome dude’s eyes glint strangely. They weren’t red a second ago, Doyoung thinks, head fuzzy and eyes tired. This new dude is a vampire, his brain supplies helpfully, and his heart supplies unhelpfully, ‘I’d willingly stop beating for him I think, even if he’s a complete asshole.’

No, that sounded like something straight out of Twilight. His heart couldn’t have willingly said something like that. He should have worn a cross today, he might not believe in god, but at least he would have had a good murder tool for an undead human that fell through the roof of the Target he works at.

Maybe it’s just him but he hears someone say, “Dude, you can’t just sound disappointed that someone’s human! Someone’s whose work you’ve ruined and hit in the span of thirteen minutes and 27.91 seconds.”

This is too much for his college drained brain to handle. He’s going to be working at this Target for the rest of his life, the dude who just ruined his life won’t even apologize and fix the mess Doyoung knows he can fix and the other cashier who’s supposed to be on duty isn’t even on duty any more. He can’t even bring himself to be mad at any of these magical folk. The roundabout holding all the paper bags creaks under his weight when he sits on it to catch his breath. Why can’t he go home already? 

The red eyed man smiles, waves his hand again, and all the stuff vanishes. Doyoung hates him because his laptop was in that mess and all he wants to do is graduate and get out of this Target. If the Yuta Plan does not work, he also does not have enough money to buy a new one. Vampire boy says, “I promise you can get your work back, my friend Yuta can get it for you. Although I think Haechan wants you to stay the cashier. Said something about you being fun to bother.”

Of course. Of course it was that little devil. When his brother was teaching him about fae and about how devious they are he really should have listened. Maybe he insulted one or did something to one in his previous life that now he’s subject to the capitalist plans of the rich to eat the poor forever due to one of them. Or half of one of them. Same difference.

“Ah yes, Yuta’s my roommate, he’s my go to solution every time you magical folk destroy my laptop. I’m the owner of the laptop Chenle fried.” Doyoung retorts, because he doesn’t know how to deal with his emotions for how pretty vampire boy is besides push him away.

“I can try to help you...” The dude mumbles, and Doyoung still doesn’t have a name. He could sue for property damage, or something, maybe that will pay off his college fees. Unfortunately, he has no evidence unless he hacks into the Target’s security cameras, which he really cannot do because it is illegal. It’s also not on his first plan for life.

The plan titled 25478 O, named for the position of his ‘plan go to list’ it is, is the first plan in his list of ‘backup plans if his first plan for life doesn’t work out’  that requires him to do any illegal things besides having a same sex relationship, but that he doesn’t see as something that should be illegal anyways so it doesn’t matter. Both gender and sex are arbitrary in life.

Meeting a boyfriend worthy vampire boy in his Target job is not accounted for in any of his 1040000 plans for life if his first plan doesn’t work out. 

“Yes, your grace, of course you can help me,” Doyoung says, sarcasm dripping from every single last word. He even flutters his lashes for extra effect, “Of course you can create the code it took me weeks to perfect in five hours.”

God, there are five more hours until this god awful shift ends. His head is hurting already, thinking about it.

The guy pauses for a moment. Good. He should feel bad about destroying Doyoung’s work and laptop. He should also feel bad about being a terrible customer but no one ever feels bad about that so Doyoung doesn’t bring it up. They should feel bad about it.

“I could summon it for you.” Doyoung looks at him with a blank gaze. This vampire knows how to assemble a computer. That’s new. The only other vampire Doyoung knows is Mark, and Mark doesn’t even know how to use a smartphone. (Mark is probably insulted somewhere as he sneezes five million times.)

Doyoung blinks at the man. He mutters, “Do whatever. I just want to graduate this year.”

The man looks at him critically for a while in a way that reminds Doyoung of Taeil sometimes. “Actually, I can’t. Another solution would be to turn you. You’d be supernatural then and you wouldn’t have to worry about college.”

That’s a new solution, turn undead and immortal and not have to deal with mortal issues like money and taxes! It should be capitalized for gain, Doyoung laughs internally, shoulders struggling not to shake with mirth at the irony of it all (capitalism). The vampire dude lifts an eyebrow, probably at the constipated look on his face.

“Also, if I were to ask you out on a date,” The guy says, and Doyoung almost collapses due to a sudden raise in blood pressure. The adonis vampire with a perfectly good undead life may be asking him, tired, bunny faced, broke college student him, on a date. “Would your answer be the same as the one to this question?”

It throws his brain for a loop. He cannot say yes, because then it would mean going saying yes to the date, and he cannot say no because it would also mean saying yes to the date. He feels like being unappeasable, so he says “Maybe.”

The laughter rises through his chest, as he sees the guy’s face sour and lips purse outward to become a stupid looking pout. When he says stupid he means far too cute, because all of the undead people he meets are adorable and he hates it. Why do all the magical folk get the good genes? Humans must have done something to piss the creator off before they were giving out all the looks, but at least sometimes they can have half a brain.

“You must have gotten your driver's license suspended from driving all your customers crazy with how beautiful you are?” Ah. He is a persistent vampire, and confident. 

“I don’t have a driver’s license.” It’s true, cars cost money he doesn’t have and he takes the bus anywhere he cannot walk. It’s nice, this back and forth, distracts him from the oncoming embarrassment when he has to beg Yuta to do whatever it is he does to get his work back by the time he has his next class. “However, we’d still look cute on a wedding cake together.”

He really should start saving his work on a hard drive. It would probably save his face should a situation like this happens again. Not that he wants something like this to happen again, but with this Target’s graveyard shift’s track record, something like this is absolutely going to happen again.

And yes, so what if he’s already planning his wedding with the cute undead vampire he met because they fell through the ceiling over his cash register? No one has any right to judge how he meets his forever as they might meet their beloved the same way. Who knows?

The vampire boy splutters for a few seconds, probably looking for something to say. A few awkward beats pass with only the beats of Doyoung’s heart rushing past his ears before he hears, “Please, I just want someone to look at me like I look at chocolate cake.”

His eyebrows arch. This vampire has taste, but he’s not convinced yet, “Bold of you to assume that someone would be me.”

“Ah, but you see, you are the only one I have eyes on. Why should any other being matter besides the two of us?” His voice is smooth, kind of like honey, but deep, in the way hot chocolate would be if it had a voice counterpart, Doyoung thinks. Maybe he just wants hot chocolate. Either way, this vampire has an incredibly pleasing voice.

In the back of his mind, he can hear Donghyuck gagging at their “old people flirting”. He thinks it’s cute. What Donghyuck thinks doesn’t matter anyways, Doyoung is an independent college student who doesn’t need to listen to the stray fae children who he adopts.

“Well, how could I possibly shamelessly flirt with you if I don’t have your name or number?” Doyoung sasses, absolutely unwilling to lose this flirting competition.

When he blinks, the tips of their noses are around two centimeters apart, and he has to go cross eyed to look at the vampire boy. Vampire boy does look just as embarrassed as Doyoung feels so he will count it as a win. He will also not pull away because that would be considered losing, and something about this vampire boy just makes him want to beat him in every way possible but also love and cherish him.

Vampire boy pulls away first. Something like disappointment weighs in his chest, adrenaline in his veins fading away with the backing away of the other, (prettier) boy. As Doyoung stares absolutely shamelessly at the other, he notices the slightly smeared pink eyeshadow and scar near his right eye. It’s kind of scary how well it matches with his own scar, the one near the right corner of his lip. Unfortunately, he catches his lip between his teeth and finds it hard to swallow, but he also catches the vampire boy staring straight at his neck, so it’s really no big deal.

“My name is Taeyong, your roommate will know how to call me. And just so you know, you would look the most beautiful in my arms.” Drop dead gorgeous vampire boy says, and Doyoung flushes his face going the same color as the cash register. He resents it slightly.

Doyoung thinks that maybe if vampires had heartbeats this vampire’s heartbeat would be beating in time with his own, perfectly timed drummers thumping both of their chests right now, and speeding wildly off the beat of safety.

For the first time, Doyoung finds that he doesn’t mind.

Taeyong leaves through the enter door. At first, Doyoung wants to yell at him, but then he remembers it’s better to let the magical folk do what they want. Besides, there aren’t any old ladies to run over during this time of the night anyways, so going out through the exit door is fine.

Working at Target isn’t so bad if he gets to see the love of his life when they go shopping.

“Well. That plan was a bust.” Taeil says, materializing out of nowhere. Good god, Doyoung’s already starting to miss that persistent vampire that fell through the ceiling light. Maybe then the persistent part siren would back off. Doyoung can hear him muttering, “One day. One day I will find out I am right about you being magical and laugh in your face about this.”

Retract his previous statement. Doyoung still hates working Target.

**Author's Note:**

> If you did happen to read this before 19/6/29, I do highly suggest you check out https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xn_vIlDrZkYdZF0xFxEc0YJU4UznBXMOT23OKD5yCWY/edit to help stream Doyoung's covers. Unfortunately, I have to be somewhere saturday that is really really important for a possible job so I cannot participate. But. If you have time. Go support. Doyoung. (Yes. This is a threat., but only if you have time.)


End file.
